Congress passed a bipartisan measure to fund federal agencies until mid-December on Tuesday, averting the threat of a government shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections.
The bill advanced through the House 370-48 and will extend current funding levels through Dec. 11. The measure also includes a provision demanded by Democrats that would delay a Trump administration rule putting political appointees in charge of issuing grants.
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the stopgap funding measure was House Republicans’ biggest priority ahead of a scheduled 10-day recess next week.
“We have to make sure the government is funded and we don’t have another Democrat shutdown,” Johnson said before the vote. “I’ll remind y’all they brought about the two longest shutdowns in U.S. history this Congress already, so let’s hope we avoid that.”
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS that Democrats supported the continuing resolution because it tackled a number of their concerns about border patrol funding, restored funding for some programs that had been previously excluded, and, most notably, the Trump administration grant rule.
Democrats had opposed the initial version of the bill that passed in the House in July.
“If you take a look at what we have accomplished and what’s been passed by the Senate and is now here, those things have been addressed,” DeLauro said. “There’s no money going to border patrol, the grant rule has been extended through the life of the CR, which gives us time to continue to work on that issue because that has got to get defeated in the long run, and then the anomalies are now included.”
The Senate overwhelmingly approved the funding bill in early August, though that vote was delayed several days over a controversial rule to push back the date that a ban on intoxicating hemp would be implemented.
That provision also saw pushback in the House, where some conservatives called for an immediate ban on the product. Rep. Chip Roy told reporters that he was frustrated by the hemp measure.
“I’m a no on the rule because of that. I’m pretty pissed,” Roy said of the hemp extension. “You’re adding hemp on the back of it, you’re adding CISA on the back of it … there’s like, four, five, six things added on to it.”
Still, the extension of current funding levels gives lawmakers more time to work out a larger government funding deal after those negotiations stalled in July. Lawmakers want to see which party will control each chamber of Congress before determining future funding levels.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem to be prepared for a bigger fight in December. Republicans are expected to argue to reinstate the Trump administration’s language on grants, which will surely infuriate Democrats and imperil the measure’s passage.
Any struggle over government funding will likely take place in the Senate, where the package needs 60 votes to advance, requiring some bipartisan support. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) told reporters in August that he intends to “fight like hell” to preserve the rule.
DeLauro also said that Democrats are also prepared for a funding showdown over the grant rule.
“There’s got to be a fight about it –– I will initiate a fight about it,” DeLauro said. “It’s the destruction of our system and of the appropriations process.”
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